loader from loading.io

35. How to Sell More on Book Markets other than Amazon

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

Release Date: 06/26/2018

64: Book Launch to Consistent Sales Case Study show art 64: Book Launch to Consistent Sales Case Study

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

You’ve written your book and the hard work is done, right? Nope! As an author, you’re not just looking to write a book, but hoping to sell that book, too.

info_outline 63. Marketers & Coffee: Publishing Companies and Deals with Anna David show art 63. Marketers & Coffee: Publishing Companies and Deals with Anna David

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

Authors are finding themselves questioning if they are better suited for going with a traditional publisher vs. going the self-publishing route.

info_outline 62. Best Writing Tools for Authors show art 62. Best Writing Tools for Authors

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

Book writing software. There are a lot of options. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about three of the most common ones: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Scrivener. Microsoft Word is familiar to many and may already be on your computer. Google Docs is free and cloud-based, meaning you can access it from anywhere. Scrivener has the most bells and whistles, though, and is designed with authors in mind. Each one has pros and cons, and depending on your style of writing, you may prefer one over the others. For more information, visit the show notes at  

info_outline 61. What Publishing Companies Are Really Like (Insider Story) show art 61. What Publishing Companies Are Really Like (Insider Story)

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

I’ve had the pleasure of working with publishing companies as an author and consultant. I’ve also seen plenty of interesting things that have a profound effect on authors both self-published as well as those working to become published by one of these companies.

info_outline 60. Marketers & Coffee: Facebook Pages for Authors show art 60. Marketers & Coffee: Facebook Pages for Authors

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

Facebook can seem like an intimidating place to put yourself out there as an author if you’re not used to it. You may wonder how to navigate between using it for personal reasons versus using it as a marketing arm of your books. But it can be a powerful tool and, used correctly, can help your readers connect with you more.

info_outline 59. How to Get Paid Writing Other People’s Books show art 59. How to Get Paid Writing Other People’s Books

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

When you first start out as a writer, you may be looking to supplement your income. One great way of doing this is to become a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter is an author who is paid to write a book for someone else. It may not seem like it carries the same weight as authoring your own book and seeing your name on the cover, but there are a lot of reasons not to discount ghostwriting.

info_outline 58. Reviving a Dead Book (Case Study #4) show art 58. Reviving a Dead Book (Case Study #4)

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

Writing a book is hard. Sometimes when we find our books aren’t selling well, we may have to make the choice between reviving it or letting it go. In this Reviving a Dead Book case study, we look at an author who decided not to revive his first book, but instead tried reviving his second. Then, he was able to look at both to see the difference a revive can make.

info_outline 57. How to Make a Children’s Book show art 57. How to Make a Children’s Book

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

Writing a children’s book is not something to go into lightly. Sure, it may sound like less work because they’re typically fewer words, but there are things to think about you may not be prepared for. But if you have ever thought about it, it’s a great market to get into. About 40 million children’s books are sold online every year. Eevi Jones has written more than a dozen children’s books of her own and uses her knowledge to teach others the skills needed to write, publish and market their own children’s books. The tips she shares in this episode will help you think about the...

info_outline 56. Using AMS Ads to Increase Your Sales (CASE STUDY) show art 56. Using AMS Ads to Increase Your Sales (CASE STUDY)

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

Michael Knight who went from doing OK with sales of his book to seeing some major changes after taking my free AMS course and using KDP Rocket. One of the things I talk about in the KDP Rocket course is that you may find keywords to use for your book you may not have immediately thought of before. Michael is still learning what keywords work best with his book for AMS ads, which he talks about in the episode and gets ideas for even more keywords that may attract his ideal reader to his book. For more information, visit the show notes at

info_outline 55. Book Price Hack that will Make You More Money show art 55. Book Price Hack that will Make You More Money

Book Marketing Show Podcast with Dave Chesson

If you’re using CreateSpace to create and market your book, you won’t want to miss this ingenious way you can price your book higher, sell it for a lower price, and still get the royalties that come from the higher price. While you may not necessarily use this tactic, I do encourage authors to test different prices for their books anyway to see what works best for them. Former guest Derek Doepker stumbled upon this hack and talks with me today about how it works and how we can use it ethically. This is within CreateSpace’s terms of service, but when you use this hack, you want to make...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

One subject that has come up a lot in this podcast is the advice of not putting all your eggs in one basket. Amazon may be at the top when it comes to the book market, but newer platforms for people to sell their books on are emerging and making your book available on those platforms can increase your sales.

Amazon has started cracking down on authors and publishing companies who are practicing deceiving tactics when it comes to increasing their sales, and Amazon has begun cracking down on these. But that has created some casualties of authors who weren’t breaking any rules, but were still dinged by Amazon. It’s important these authors are making their books available elsewhere, not only to avoid being left out to dry if Amazon decides not to sell their books anymore, but also to increase overall sales.

While many authors see about 90 percent of their sales come from Amazon, our guest today, Tracy Cooper-Posey, has been able to market her books on other platforms and estimates that only 35-40 percent of her revenue comes from Amazon. She uses Draft2Digital, which helps distribute her books and she also distributes them herself on as many different sellers as she can find, including on her own website.

She recommends learning the different platforms and how to create a vibrant presentation of the books yourself, instead of trusting an aggregator. This gives her a little more control over how her books are shown and even smaller sellers count. She also uses these smaller platforms in her advertising with the intention that the market will see her book sales increase and possibly promote her ranking within their ecosystem. But, like we’ve talking about in previous episodes, if you are planning on running any sort of ads for your books, make sure you give them a little time to pick up traction.

 

She also asks her readers to leave reviews on the platform they bought the book from. This may sound like a no-brainer, but it bodes well for our books if reviews are spread across different sites, and may increase the book’s visibility.

Another thing she recommends is selling you book on your own website, which you can do through a shopping cart plug-in like Selz, Woo Commerce, or Gumroad so you’re not bogged down by technical questions and you can focus more on writing. Doing this also means you can set your own price and offer deals and coupons, and you can increase the revenue you recieve when someone purchases your book directly from you. However, if you’re selling your first book, you don’t need to worry too much about selling on your own site for the time being.

A last piece of advice Cooper-Posey gives is to stay on top of industry news so you’ll be able to find out about new platforms that are just starting up.

POSSIBLE PULLQUOTE: Things change and you can’t just set it and forget it, you keep monitoring, keep an eye on the ground, and listen to the gossip. Find out what’s going on in the industry.

 

Bio of the Author in the Case Study:

Tracy Cooper-Posey is an award-winning author who’s published over 90 books since 1999, been nominated for five CAPAs including Favorite Author and won the Emma Darcy Award. You can check out her works and even ask her questions at her site at http://tracycooperposey.com/.

 

Resources Referred to in this Episode: